This is a list of important events the occured during 1997. Exact dates are listed when known.

• Hong Kong's Independence
  England handed Hong Kong to China
  
  
• Scientists cloned Dolly the sheep
  Dolly the cloned sheep was cloned by scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland.
  
  
• Heaven's Gate Cult mass suicide
  A mass suicide in which 39 members of a "Heaven's Gate Cult" in California killed themselves thinking they would be sent up to a spaceship behind the passing Hale Bopp comet. Strange and sad story.
  
  
• OJ Simpsons loses civil suit for wrongful death
  
  
• Timothy McVeigh is found guilty of bombing
  
  
• China resumes control of Hong Kong
  July 1, after 156 years of British rule, the colony was turned back over to China.
  
  
• Mars Pathfinder lands on Mars
  The little remote control rover landed and took pictures and samples of the planet surface.
  
  
• Princess Diana's Funeral.
  Millions of mourners gathered outside a London cathedral for the funeral of Princess Diana. Princess Sara and her children showed up in the crowd of mourners. Camilla Parker Bowles, refered to by Diana as a Rottweiler, was the only one who wasn't invited to the funeral. Diana was later laid to rest at the Spencer family plot.
  
  
• Comet Hale-Bopp 1st spotted
  It was considered to be the greatest comet in the 20th century. About 80% of Americans saw it without a telescope.
  
  
• NYC Police Assualt Haitian Immigrant
  4 New York City police officers assault Haitian immigrant Abner Louima while in custody. Louima was beaten severely while handcuffed and had a toilet plunger shoved into his rectum, puncturing his intestine and bladder
  
  
• California Ban on Affrimative Action
  In California, a state ban on all forms of affirmative action was passed. Proposed in 1996, the ban had been delayed in the courts for almost a year before it went into effect. Proposition 209 stated "the state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting."
  
  
• Paducah High School shootings
  Mentally ill Michael Carneal, 15, was charged with killing three Paducah high school classmates and wounding five others who were in a prayer circle. December 1997
  
  
• Versace was murdered
  July 15, 1997- Andrew Cunanan murders fashion designer Gianni Versace
  
  
• Michigan wins the national championship
  Michigan beats washington state 21-16 :)
  
  
• Tony Blair is elected
  Tony Blair become prime minister of Great Britain in a landslide election victory ending 18 years of Conservative rule.
  
  
• Married With Children Cancelled
  Married With Children Was Canceles After 10 Years.
  
  
• Asian Financial Crisis
  On 2 July, the devaluing of the Thai babt triggered off the currency crisis, which devastated the many Asian countries' economies in ensuing months.
  
  
• Dolly The Sheep Cloned
  Dolly is the first cloned mammal.
  
  
• Titanic
  Titanic opened in 1997 and became the BIGGEST Total Box-Office Film ever in film history with over 1 Billion dollars and also became the movie with most Academy Award totaling 13
  
  
• Harry Potter is published
  Harry Potter was published in 1997 and written by J.K. Rowling, inspired millions to read.
  
  
• Flood of 1997
  The Flood of 1997 hit the Red River Valley in April. Many towns had to be evacuated in North Dakota and Minnesota. Many families lost their homes.
  
  
• Hanson
  In 1997 "hanson" The Band Of Three Brothers With Long Blonde Hair Released Their Debut Album "Middle Of Nowhere" And The Hit "mmmbop"
  
  
• Marlins first Wild Card team to win the WS
  The Florida Marlins led by the strong bats of Gary Sheffield and Moises Alou and the strong arms of Robb Nen and Livan Hernandez win the World Series
  
  
• World's First Surviving Set of Septuplets
  Kenneth Robert, Alexis May, Natalie Sue, Kelsey Ann, Brandon James, Nathan Roy, and Joel Steven were born to Bobbi and Kenny McCaughey on November 19, 1997 making them the world's first surviving set of septuplets.
  
  
• Mother Theresa of Calcutta died
  Mother Theresa of Calcutta died a week later after Princess Diana, Sept 1997
  
  
• Biggie Meets A Similar Fate As Tupac
  March 9, 1997: Christopher Wallace aka Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in his car in Los Angeles after an awards show after-party. It is unknown if Biggie's death is related to Tupac's death. To this day neither homicide has been solved.
  
  
• The Packers Win The Super Bowl
  Packers beat the patriots 31-27.
  
  
• men's college basketball
  The Arizona Wildcats win the National Championship.
  
  
• Madeleine Albright
  Madeleine Albright was sworn in as Secretary of State, becoming the first woman to head the State Department
  
  
• North Hollywood Shootout
  February 28 1997 At 9:15 a.m., Phillips and Matasareanu robbed a Bank of America branch office in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Just before entering the bank, both robbers ingested phenobarbitol, a barbiturate-muscle relaxant. The medication was probably Matasareanu's, as he was an epileptic, and the medication was used for anti-seizure medication. They may have taken it for its physically calming side-effects. "Pill courage". Ten employees and thirty-two customers were present during the robbery. Phillips and Matasareanu managed to steal USD $303,305. One customer was injured when one of the robbers hit him in the head with the stock of an AK-47. A citizen passing near the bank noticed the robbers entering the bank and flagged down a patrol car, Unit 15A43 of the Los Angeles Police Department. Inside the bank, Phillips kept watch in the lobby while Matasareanu, after opening the protective barrier with his firearm, forced the manager to open the vault and fill a suitcase with $303,305. However, the two men had expected more. What they didn't know was that their previous robberies had caused the banks in the area to change their money delivery times, so that they were less predictable. The expected armored car delivery had not occurred that day. "Where's the rest?" Matasareanu asked the bank manager. When he learned that there was no more money, he demanded the manager open the ATMs, which contained tens of thousands of dollars in cash. Bank of America ATMs were no longer accessible to on-site bank employees, so the manager was unable to open them. Matasareanu tried to shoot open the safe, but this only froze the lock completely, making it impossible to open at all.[citation needed] After collecting the money, Phillips and Matasareanu locked all customers and employees in the vault and left the bank. Inside the Bank The first shots of the day were fired as soon as the suspects entered the bank. One of them unloaded a full 30 round magazine from his AK-47 into the ceiling, immediately immobilizing all persons in the bank. Matasareanu then used his firearm to open the barrier that separated the customers from the cashiers and the vault. A second burst was released when Matasareanu saw how little money there was in the vault. Matasareanu used a third spray of fire attempting to open the ATM. After eight minutes they decided to leave with the money that they had, less than half the haul they expected. Larry Phillips emerged at 9:38 a.m. PST through the north door of the Bank of America. His partner Emil Matasareanu appeared through the south door a few seconds later. Both stared at the police in disbelief, just becoming aware that the police were involved. The police were initially armed with Beretta 92FS 9 mm pistols, .38 Special revolvers, as well as Remington and Ithaca 12-gauge pump-action shotguns. [edit] Shootout Standing in the doorway of the bank, Phillips raised his Romanian-made AK-47 assault rifle and began spraying at police officers positioned on the north side of the bank. The two gunmen used Full metal jacket bullet cartridges, fully capable of penetrating cars, walls, and the soft body armor of the police. Matasareanu, dragging the suitcase of money behind him, suddenly noticed that red smoke was spewing from inside it. The robbers had picked up three dye packs. The money ruined, Matasareanu abandoned it and began firing from the south side of the bank. Police from all over Los Angeles were now flocking to the chaotic scene following a "TAC-ALert" call. Rookie officer James Zboravan, taking cover behind a locksmith's kiosk directly across the street from the bank--and directly in both gunmen's lines of fire--waited until Phillips had turned around, then fired at him several times with his shotgun, striking him with nine buckshot pellets in the back of his armor, leaving him unscathed. Phillips turned and fired at the kiosk, and at the officers hiding behind and around it. Zboravan was hit by two of Phillips' rounds in his lower back and buttocks as he dove to cover two other unarmored officers who were with him. Detective John Krulac, also behind the kiosk, was hit in the ankle. "It felt like somebody just took and whacked me with a hammer," he said of the shrapnel that entered his leg. As Phillips and Matasareanu continued to fire, Zboravan and Krulac abandoned their position behind the kiosk and moved around constantly to avoid Phillips' fire. "Phillips," Krulac said, "would take turns shooting from car to car, and we'd run from car to car." Eventually the two officers managed to enter a dentist's office across from the bank, where the dentist and his nurse treated their wounds with the materials they had on hand. Still in front of the bank, Phillips and Matasareanu continued firing. The scene was now completely out of the control of the police; Phillips and Matasareanu were firing at anything that shot at them. Many police officers did not even fire when they got the chance, as they knew it would only provoke a hail of bullets. "He never forgot where you were," Sgt. Dean Haynes said of Phillips. "If you shot at him, he'd just turn and spray fifty rounds at you. He was like a bear in a beehive; our rounds just didn't seem to be bothering him." Matasareanu, however, was not protected by neck to toe body armor. He wore only a kevlar vest with a trauma plate. About fifteen minutes into the shootout, Matasareanu received a gunshot wound to his leg, at which time he disappeared into the getaway car, a white Chevrolet Celebrity. However, he continued to fire bursts through the car's windows. Meanwhile, Phillips continued firing. He wounded Officer Martin Whitfield, who took cover behind a tree. Whitfield bled for nearly half an hour before the besieged police force finally reached him. He was taken to a nearby hospital and made a satisfactory recovery. Several officers and detectives, including detective Vince Bankraft, began firing at Phillips from behind a cement wall at the rear of the bank. Phillips had now moved to the north side of the bank, where several cars were lined up in the parking lot, including the Chevy that Matasareanu was sitting in. When Bankraft and the other police and detectives fired at him, Phillips turned. "He just turned and looked at me like, 'Who the hell are you?" Bankraft later said. Phillips opened up on the line of police behind the wall. His rounds sprayed fragments of the wall everywhere, stopping the fire. Phillips then calmly looked at the stopwatch which he had sewn into his glove. As police and detectives began to fire on him again, he picked up his AK-47 and began walking down the line of cars, firing bursts from his rifle as he did so. As Phillips continued to spray a police car at the intersection, a shotgun blast narrowly missed his head. He crouched down behind a white sports car to reload his weapon. Standing up again, he began firing bursts at the police directly opposite the bank, then walked over to the rear of the bank and fired at the detectives behind the wall, who had resumed firing at him. A round hit him directly in the chest, nearly knocking him over. When Phillips recovered, he seemed much more wary of the gunfire. His rifle clutched in one hand, Phillips moved to the Chevy that Matasareanu was sitting inside. Opening the trunk, he threw his AK-47 inside and retrieved a new weapon--an illegally converted full-auto HK-91 rifle. "Suspect has retrieved additional weapons from the trunk of his vehicle!" the police radio informed officers. Phillips began firing randomly with the HK-91, taking a particular interest in the officers just across the street from him. He fired several rounds, then dropped the weapon to his side and wiped his brow. The two gunmen were wearing body armor, all colored black; the day was very hot even for a man in a T-shirt. Phillips walked over to the car, opened the door, and reached inside, but a round from detective Bankraft distracted him. The detective had been firing at Phillips; one of his rounds, a ricochet, struck the gunman's hand. Phillips began shooting again, walking around behind the cars and alternating between firing and ducking behind the cars to reload. At one point, Phillips was nearly hit by a blast that exploded the window of a nearby station wagon. He ducked and crouched down, firing on one knee at the officer who had shot at him. As news helicopters from all around Los Angeles buzzed overhead, Phillips continued to fire wildly. Finally a helicopter from KCAL seemed to distract him. On live television, in front of millions of stunned people, Phillips lined up his weapon and began firing at the very news helicopter that was taping him.
  
  
• Pokemon First Introduced
  Pokemon the major kids game was realesed to the U.S. and swept the Nation with its great gaming fun.Kids still love to play pokemon games all over the world.
  
  
• Camel Cigarettes Remove Joe Camel
  Camel cigarettes removes Joe Camel[a drawing]from it's advertising because opponents claim Jo Camel causes cigarettes.
  
  

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